News Brief
Trouble For Chinese Navy In Indian Ocean: India Gets Its Ninth Submarine Killer Aircraft; Three More To Be Delivered Next Year
Indian Navy’s P8I Maritime Patrol Aircraft (Boeing India /Twitter)
The Indian Navy today received its ninth P8-I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft from Boeing.
The aircraft, first of the second batch of four P8-I bought by India, arrived in Goa from Seattle in the US after stops at Hawaii, Guam and Brunei.
Eight of these aircraft, which were ordered in the first batch, have already been delivered and are in service with the Indian Navy.
The Indian Navy is the largest foreign customer of the P8 platform. While eight have already been indicted into service, four (one arrived today) are on order and six more are being procured. The Navy, reports say, plans to have a total of 22 of these aircraft in the next few years to keep an eye on Chinese movements in the Indian Ocean Region, most importantly its submarines.
This video by Boeing explains how the Indian Navy P8s track submarines.
The aircraft arrived at a time when the Indian Navy is holding the Malabar Naval Exercise in the Arabian Sea with its Quad partners — the US, Japan and Australia. India’s P8-I aircraft are also participating in the exercise.
Apart from India, the US and Australia also use P8 aircraft.
India has also used the aircraft to track Chinese deployments along the Line of Actual Control amid the ongoing standoff in eastern Ladakh.
Indian Navy P8s were seen flying towards Ladakh at leas twice.
The Indian Army had successfully used the P-8I aircraft to monitor Chinese movements along the border during the 73-day-long Doklam standoff. As Captain D K Sharma (Retd), who was serving as the spokesperson and Public Relation Officer of the Indian Navy, revealed recently, “The aircraft were live-streaming data to support decision making during the Doklam face-off”.
The aircraft, this report says, was also put to use “to keep an eye on movement of Pakistani troops after the Pulwama terror attack last year”.
Support Swarajya's 50 Ground Reports Project & Sponsor A Story
Every general election Swarajya does a 50 ground reports project.
Aimed only at serious readers and those who appreciate the nuances of political undercurrents, the project provides a sense of India's electoral landscape. As you know, these reports are produced after considerable investment of travel, time and effort on the ground.
This time too we've kicked off the project in style and have covered over 30 constituencies already. If you're someone who appreciates such work and have enjoyed our coverage please consider sponsoring a ground report for just Rs 2999 to Rs 19,999 - it goes a long way in helping us produce more quality reportage.
You can also back this project by becoming a subscriber for as little as Rs 999 - so do click on this links and choose a plan that suits you and back us.
Click below to contribute.
Latest
